AUSTIN, Texas — Fraudsters are now targeting credit unions in a sophisticated attempt to secure wire transfers from members' home equity line of credit (HELOC) accounts, according to the Credit Union Information Security Professionals Association (CUISPA).
All credit unions should put their call centers and other member-facing staff on alert to the scam, and to be particularly wary of callers asking for information that would not be available publicly, and for requests from accounts that have not been very active or have recently changed addresses, the organization says.
Kelly Dowell, CUISPA's executive director, says his organization is aware of nearly a dozen such attempted transfers, which he says averaged from $70,000 to $100,000 each. He says the fraudsters are calling the credit unions already armed with information that apparently is coming from public land records that provide such details as the existence of a HELOC account, credit lines and signature samples.
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Dowell says the criminals are making multiple calls to call centers, seeking information such as account balances in an apparent effort to verify the institution's authentication procedures, and ordering credit reports on account holders within 24 hours of attempting transfers.
Dowell says the FBI and Secret Service have been notified and that CUISPA is now organizing a Webcast on the threat, tentatively set for next Wednesday. Details are at www.cuispa.org.
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